The group of hackers that took down the PlayStation Network might not be done with Sony yet.
If rumors are true, Sony isn’t going to have a great weekend. After an attack on the PlayStation Network that has kept the service offline for more than two weeks, and a separate attack against Sony Online Entertainment (the company’s MMO branch) that was confirmed to have exposed customer credit card information, the same group of hackers may have a third salvo to fire.
CNET claims an informant that observes certain internet relay chat (IRC) channels says a “third major attack” is planned for the weekend of May 7 and 8. Even worse, the source says hackers evidently “plan to publicize all or some of the information they are able to copy from Sony’s servers, which could include customer names, credit card numbers, and addresses.”
The hackers allegedly have access to “some” of Sony’s servers. Despite the best efforts of Sony’s network security professionals and other organizations such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, the party responsible for the attacks is still on the loose, so it may not be outside of the realm of possibility that it could strike again. At this point in time, after Sony has assured customers that new security measures are being put in place, anyone trying to hurt Sony could really wrench the knife in its guts with a third attack.
Before you go running for the hills, keep in mind that this is extremely unconfirmed information. The hackers that took down Sony are some seriously wanted individuals, so it wouldn’t seem very prudent to speak of a future crime in the company of those that might leak their plans to a website. To me, this report has the essence of fear-mongering. However, if the PSN actually comes back by the end of the week as planned, and then goes down again, I guess we’ll know what happened.
Source: CNET
